AI will fuel more dividend hikes

Article Excerpt

MICROSOFT CORP. $338 is a buy. The software giant (Nasdaq symbol MSFT; High-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio; Manufacturing sector; Shares o/s: 7.5 billion; Market cap: $2.5 trillion; Dividend yield: 0.8%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.microsoft.com) last raised your quarterly dividend by 9.7% in December 2022, to $0.68 a share from $0.62. The new annual rate of $2.72 yields 0.8%. As part of Microsoft’s big push into artificial intelligence, the company is adding its Copilot generative AI assistant to its subscription-based Microsoft 365 suite of productivity programs. Copilot’s $30 U.S. monthly cost is a significant increase for many of its business customers. However, it should produce significant future revenue streams. The stock trades at 33.8 times the $9.99 a share that Microsoft will probably earn in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. That’s a reasonable p/e in light of the growth potential of its AI software. Microsoft is still a buy. buy…